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When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

Here are some alternative uses of ocean plastic

Since its creation, plastic has become almost essential to our society. It’s low cost and durability have made it an integral part of many of the modern advances we have seen over the last century. However, as you are most likely aware, plastic has now become a massive problem and poses a dangerous threat to our environment. Hence, the amount of waste generated by single-us plastics is choking our wildlife, harming our health, and destroying our planet. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), over 300 millions tons of plastic are produced each year, and at least 8 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year.

Scientists, engineers, activists and other policy groups around the world are trying to come up with solutions to reduce, eliminate or even recreate new stuff from the amount of plastic that is found in the ocean.

Fashion

Footwear

Designers have found a way to produce stylish shoes from waste that’s recovered every day from the sea. Various sneakers, slippers serve to illustrate the problem of the vast quantities of waste. For instance, Adidas teamed up with another enterprise to make shoes. They are making fashion from the ocean’s waste in order to protect the marine creatures and save them.

Clothes

Concerned with plastic pollution, certain companies are producing clothes from plastic waste in the ocean. They are making recycled clothes fashionable and promote an eco-conscious lifestyle. For instance, an old fishing net is turned into a jacket. Hence, Adidas even created swimwear made from ocean plastic. They prefer to make as cool as well designed clothes as others in order to protect the environment and at the same time not to keep on using natural resources.

Bags

The ocean, the origin of life on our planet, is suffering from the incessant accumulation of rubbish and plastic waste materials. Companies like Prada also launched a Re-Nylon collection of bags, backpack crafted from ocean plastics, fishing nets. This project highlights their continued efforts towards promoting an eco-responsible business.

Sunglasses

A collection of glasses are products that seek to recycle plastic from the ocean into consumer products. This project is aimed at boosting the use of eco innovative materials in fashion and industrial design. Hence, the ocean plastic sunglasses are made using a new upcycling process that is able to include plastic types that have been historically been more difficult to recycle. They have been able to use the latest technology, which transforms low-quality types of plastic waste into high-performance materials, providing a unique look.

Infrastructure

Bricks construction

Plastics have been continuously polluting our oceans and have steadily gotten worse. In fact, 12 million tons are dumped in the ocean. Hence, in order to get rid of all these and prevent pollution or any harmful consequences, a novel solution has been set up for tackling the growing problem of ocean plastic: turn it into construction material. The concept is actually pretty simple. Plastic trash collected from the ocean gets compressed into sturdy construction-quality bricks.

Road construction

Countries have developed a way to reduce the amount of plastic that is thrown in the ocean and make roads that last 3 times longer than asphalt. According to Global Alliance For Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), Southeast Asian countries use 164 million plastic sachets every day – and they get regularly thrown in dams and so on. Hence, the Philippines are targeting all plastics that are hard to recycle and make up a significant chunk of the trash piling up in clogging waterways. With more eco-friendly treatment it would transform every floating waste into valuable materials. That’s why countries like India and Philippines have found a way to use all ocean plastics items to create stronger, longer-lasting roads.

These petty finds that they are using are made from plastic fragments, bottles and fishing nets retrieved from our seas. Companies are making new forms of recycling marine debris which have been incepted on the islands, coastal communities, beaches, underwater and on the high seas because plastic waste ruins our ocean and harms the environment.